Rush Lake Bass

[Ford Man]

I'm heading up to Rush Lake this weekend to go bass fishing with a friend that lives north of Rush City. I've fished a couple of bass tournaments on Rush Lake in the past 3 years, I've never done well on this lake. I normally focus on West Rush, around the islands and some of the dropoffs. Any ideas on how to catch some decent bass on Rush? Thanks.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Generally... Shallow, and then fish shallower! If you can find some green weeds you might find some better fish.. I had a tournament out there a few weeks ago and weighed 13 lbs for 5 fish... all caught on a jig pig in about 5 feet of water.

[Ford Man]

Thanks for the info, Dietz. Can you tell me what areas in particular you fished, i.e. West Rush, islands, etc. Thanks again.

[Deitz Dittrich]

caught fish in both lakes, I spent more of my time in East, but again... caught fish in both lakes... Pretty much kept to shorline stuff, and again, looked for any green weeds I could find. The pattern may have changed however!

[Ferny]

Dietz, was that the Extreem Bass tourney? I saw quite a few tourney guys and a girl flippin docks on West and never saw a fish caught. The water was very warm and scummy but it is clearing up with this cooler weather and rain. I bet they are going to be moving around.

Ferny.

[Deitz Dittrich]

NOpe, I was fishing the USA Bassin Event.

[Ferny]

The water is horribly green like pea soup again!

Here I thought it would be clearing up soon.

Saw another tourney out there saturday.

Ferny

[Basseyes]

Try a weightless tube in shallow. Late in the day or early morning is best. Deitz is right go shallow. The only way you can go to shallow is to go on shore. Try finding an inside edge with a hard bottom with sand or glory be some rock or rubble then just keep after it. Once the cooler temps start getting rid of the scum switch to big willow leaf spinner baits and buzz baits around reeds not cattails. The cattails have never held as many bass for me as the reeds. Sand bottom rather than a muck bottom I'd guess. Rush in spring and fall is a good bass lake. In the summer I'd rather fish a lake that doesn't skunk up so bad. It doesn't give up bass as willingly in the summer but still has good bass in it just a bit more work to get 'em going. Have had days on the lake that are just to easy and days when I'd have better luck fishing in my toilet. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick though. Rush wouldn't be my first choice for fishing for anything in mid summer.

[DaveyJWBL]

I've fished Rush a few times in the past couple of weeks. First of all, there are HUGE bass in Rush! I've caught some very nice fish using topwater baits in and around lily pads recently. But, the biggest fish seem to be under the (I don't know what it's called) green film in shallow water near lily pads. This "film" looks like tiny clovers when you pull it off your bait. It's bright green and starts from the shore line goes out about as far as the pads do. I've been pulling a Sizmic or Ribit frog over the top of this stuff and big bass have been attacking it! The only down side to this is that only about every other fish actually hits the bait, the others miss it...sometimes by as much as a foot or more. I had one fish (this was near some reeds on West) that jumped 2-3 feet strait out of the water at my frog but missed it by over a foot. This fish jumped strait, never even wagged its tail in the air and landed back in the water tail first...weird but cool. Anyway, Dietz is right about shallow water...if you think you are too shallow, you can fish even shallower! Some guys I fished in a tournament against on Rush this year caught most of their fish in 6 inches of water. They said they were actually seeing the dorsal fin out of the water and sight fishing them. Anyone who has fished Rush knows that sight fishing isn't really an option because you can only see down about a foot at most in the summer.

[MidCoast]

I wanna get back on this lake... But I need to just find the time... Excellent bass, crappie, buffalo, and walleye fishery by the way.